Yes, that would need to be balanced against the cost to society of people seeing a potential loop-hole to get around facing the consequences of their actions.
To be truly sorry, you'd have to accept doing the jail time and then trying to make up for the harm that you caused by not contributing during that time. Maybe you could try rehabilitating other prisoners during your incarceration in an attempt to make amends.
I'm over 40, so my youth is subject to interpretation.
To me, imprisonment of 6 months or 6 years are both unacceptable and I'd avoid doing the crime or getting caught if a t all possible. Obviously, I understand the difference intellectually, but I imagine that the emotional impact of spending 6 months inside would be similar to spending 6 years inside. However, I've got no experience of either, so it'd be interesting to hear from someone who does know.
Deterrents do work for most reasonable people, but a lot of criminals just don't understand that they will get caught if they continue committing crimes.
I can't think of a decent alternative to imprisonment, but using imprisonment as a form of rehabilitation rather than the torture aspect. If someone is a danger to society, then you have to go with the "lesser evil" of keeping society safe to the detriment of the criminal.
I think the punishment aspect is only effective up to a certain point (e.g. a couple of months, maybe a year or two) in terms of acting as a deterrent. I can't personally grasp the difference between a 5 year term and a 10 year term - they both seem like a hell of a long time to me.
As a rabid atheist, I started reading your post thinking it was going to be a poor argument defending the bible, but instead you've presented clear evidence that the bible is not about vengeance at all.
However, it seems that this god character really enjoyed his vengeance on certain people.
Here in the UK, there's a whole bunch of sentences that don't involve time in prison. People can be fined or made to work so many hours in community service or prevented from being in certain areas etc.
Torture is deliberately causing physical/psychological/emotional harm and prison sentences may inadvertently cause harm, but it's not the main purpose of incarceration and thus not really torture.
Also, what about government's role in building infrastructure such as roads, airports etc?
Most criminals are very poor at evaluating outcomes and most believe that they are not going to be caught, so the difference between those two options is not going to matter to the people it would affect.
Justice is society's way of dealing with people who don't live by the rules of society.
If you had committed those crimes and truly repented, then you would be giving yourself up to the police and insisting that you should face the consequences for your actions.
By flouting the rules of society and then not wanting to atone for your actions, you're hardly sorry that you did it.
That's a relief, but I completely disagree with her whole premise of finding ways to increase the punishment aspects of imprisonment. She may or may not be a complete nutter, but that blog reads like the rantings of a cruel, sadistic nutter.
You're right that this should be publicised and hopefully the people thinking up this kind of thing will be given a slap and taught why this kind of thing does not belong in a reasonable society.
Absolutely. If they are going to use drugs to exact harsher "punishment", then they might as well start looking for a drug that causes intense pain and suffering. While they're about it, why don't they semi-starve the prisoners and ensure that they can never get more than a few minutes sleep.
This is the most objectionable story I've ever seen on Slashdot.
I didn't realise that Cyclemeter has changed to require a subscription. However, I haven't used it in ages as I've just got used to using Strava instead. Strava uses a strange model of providing most of the functionality for free and requires subscription just for the extra pro options, however it's quite an expensive subscription and the extra functionality isn't that great (maybe because I'm not a pro). They occasionally provide a 30-day free trial of the pro service and the only feature that I used was the heart rate analysis (which Cyclemeter does for free).
The problem with requiring companies to provide downgrades is when the software interacts with servers or other machines and there can be problems with supporting all the older versions along with the latest one.
The other big problem is when an upgrade changes a datastore to a new format. That can then make a downgrade very difficult to implement.
On the other hand, evolution has presumably made brains to be relatively stable, so I'd imagine that any artificial stimulation would soon wear off. If our brains were that sensitive to electrical manipulation, then we'd have to be a lot more careful during lightning storms.
Slashdot Mirror
Ouch, my eyes!
Yes, you should be carrying a slide-rule.
Woah Dude! It's like we're all part of the universe examining itself/ourselves from every angle.
Interesting, but the wrong continent. TFA is about the UK (which presumably still has similar sentiments).
Proofread! You're shit!
And, who's eating this chicken?
You're mixing them up! You should have written "Zathras, Zathras, Zathras or Zathras?".
Yes, that would need to be balanced against the cost to society of people seeing a potential loop-hole to get around facing the consequences of their actions.
To be truly sorry, you'd have to accept doing the jail time and then trying to make up for the harm that you caused by not contributing during that time. Maybe you could try rehabilitating other prisoners during your incarceration in an attempt to make amends.
I'm over 40, so my youth is subject to interpretation.
To me, imprisonment of 6 months or 6 years are both unacceptable and I'd avoid doing the crime or getting caught if a t all possible. Obviously, I understand the difference intellectually, but I imagine that the emotional impact of spending 6 months inside would be similar to spending 6 years inside. However, I've got no experience of either, so it'd be interesting to hear from someone who does know.
Deterrents do work for most reasonable people, but a lot of criminals just don't understand that they will get caught if they continue committing crimes.
How about doing a spin-off from Babylon 5 involving a Vorlon game-show? I'm thinking of something like Takeshi's Castle.
I can't think of a decent alternative to imprisonment, but using imprisonment as a form of rehabilitation rather than the torture aspect. If someone is a danger to society, then you have to go with the "lesser evil" of keeping society safe to the detriment of the criminal.
I think the punishment aspect is only effective up to a certain point (e.g. a couple of months, maybe a year or two) in terms of acting as a deterrent. I can't personally grasp the difference between a 5 year term and a 10 year term - they both seem like a hell of a long time to me.
As a rabid atheist, I started reading your post thinking it was going to be a poor argument defending the bible, but instead you've presented clear evidence that the bible is not about vengeance at all.
However, it seems that this god character really enjoyed his vengeance on certain people.
Here in the UK, there's a whole bunch of sentences that don't involve time in prison. People can be fined or made to work so many hours in community service or prevented from being in certain areas etc.
Torture is deliberately causing physical/psychological/emotional harm and prison sentences may inadvertently cause harm, but it's not the main purpose of incarceration and thus not really torture.
Also, what about government's role in building infrastructure such as roads, airports etc?
Most criminals are very poor at evaluating outcomes and most believe that they are not going to be caught, so the difference between those two options is not going to matter to the people it would affect.
If those drugs existed and were effective, then I imagine there might well be an underground economy that can supply those drugs outside of prison.
However, if the drugs were controlled and you were caught using/supplying them, would they throw you in prison?
Justice is society's way of dealing with people who don't live by the rules of society.
If you had committed those crimes and truly repented, then you would be giving yourself up to the police and insisting that you should face the consequences for your actions.
By flouting the rules of society and then not wanting to atone for your actions, you're hardly sorry that you did it.
To my mind, forced confinement is torture.
I would have thought that the Archangel Michael would be more accepting of rehabilitation and redemption.
That's a relief, but I completely disagree with her whole premise of finding ways to increase the punishment aspects of imprisonment. She may or may not be a complete nutter, but that blog reads like the rantings of a cruel, sadistic nutter.
It's the story that I find objectionable.
You're right that this should be publicised and hopefully the people thinking up this kind of thing will be given a slap and taught why this kind of thing does not belong in a reasonable society.
Absolutely. If they are going to use drugs to exact harsher "punishment", then they might as well start looking for a drug that causes intense pain and suffering. While they're about it, why don't they semi-starve the prisoners and ensure that they can never get more than a few minutes sleep.
This is the most objectionable story I've ever seen on Slashdot.
I didn't realise that Cyclemeter has changed to require a subscription. However, I haven't used it in ages as I've just got used to using Strava instead. Strava uses a strange model of providing most of the functionality for free and requires subscription just for the extra pro options, however it's quite an expensive subscription and the extra functionality isn't that great (maybe because I'm not a pro). They occasionally provide a 30-day free trial of the pro service and the only feature that I used was the heart rate analysis (which Cyclemeter does for free).
The problem with requiring companies to provide downgrades is when the software interacts with servers or other machines and there can be problems with supporting all the older versions along with the latest one.
The other big problem is when an upgrade changes a datastore to a new format. That can then make a downgrade very difficult to implement.
Just wear a happy mask. Might also help to get out of speeding tickets if the speed camera shows your car was driven by Ronald Reagan at the time.
You might be right, but there's definitely a big range of intelligence across people.
On the other hand, evolution has presumably made brains to be relatively stable, so I'd imagine that any artificial stimulation would soon wear off. If our brains were that sensitive to electrical manipulation, then we'd have to be a lot more careful during lightning storms.